It was nearly three a.m. when Lennon lugged two empty tureens into the kitchen. He set them on the floor, and Patrick and Amanda hurried to fill them with ice.

"Hey, you."

Patrick looked up. "Huh?"

"Come with me."

Patrick's first impulse was to say no, but he thought of the basement and the torture implements he'd seen.

He gave Amanda an apologetic nod, then followed the vampire. They wound through the house, to a back room decorated in heavy furniture and fur ...